standard life

dunstonh

I dont think that generally there is a problem at the moment. I read earlier that IFAs account for 20% of complaints and only 25% of those are upheld. So, if you are going to look at anyone, take a look at the tied/multi-tied first.

Pensions and endowment problems mostly go back to 1995 or earlier. There have been an awful lot of changes since then and you should allow those to settle first before saying that there is still widespread mis-selling.

EdInvestor

Sorry I should have said the misselling problem "as it applies to IFAs". Indeed I agree that most of the misselling was done by building society and bank employees working technically as reps of the lifecos, not by IFAs.

But I still think that you probably won't get genuine independent client-centred advice from an IFA when he is paid by the lifeco. It just isn't the same as paying a solictor to represent you - or even an estate agent to sell your house.

There's a fundamental conflict of interest. Unless you pay him a fee, the best you should realistically hope for is that an IFA won't act directly against your interests.

BTW IME senior IFAs who do pension work are much better - some of these people are very skilled and seem to have a much more ethical attitude - possibly because they mostly work for fees and have well off clients who are happy to pay, more like accountants perhaps?

Compensationitis

The method of remuneration is no indication of the quality of advice, I am dealing a some major complaints against fee-based advisers who charged massive amounts for what is unarguably horrendous advice.

I am also dealing with complaints against solicitors who pretended to be IFAs yet pushed their clients tawards the Equitable Life rep who was paid big bonuses (doesn't sound like commission but it is the same thing) and now wash their hands of the matter because the Law Society can't do a flaming thing about it, in one case the poor lady is £230,000 out of pocket and the Law Sciety have offered her £2,000 compensation, yes I did say £2,000, there is no zero missing off the end.....

As far as estate agents are concerned I can't see how they can be put in the same police line-up, can you? I used to look after 13 offices of that breed, the things they got up to would make your hair stand on end.

As far as 1995 being the end of mis-selling (whatever that is!) is concerned that is complete bolleaux, bad advice is still available in plentiful supply, I can provide as many examples as you want. Regulation has not made any difference to how the crooks operate because they have less competition from the decent IFAs who always looked after their clients who were also their friends. Yes they did exist in large numbers once upon a time, they are few and far between nowadays.

Anyway, we are working on a generic advice system that will fit in between the commission biased advisers and the greedy fee chargers if someone wants to help us get it off the ground.